Priest
| Budget: $60 million | Financed by: Sony (Screen Gems) |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $29,136,626 | Domestic Distributor: Sony (Screen Gems) |
| Overseas Gross: $49,172,505 | Directed by: Scott Stewart |
Starring: Paul Bettany | Produced by: Michael De Luca |
Screen Gems financed Priest as their most expensive film at $60 million and the Sony branch would bounce the release date around, only to push Priest back a year to convert to 3D. A marketing campaign that didn’t target anyone except young male fanboys led to a weak opening weekend at the US box office with $14,953,664 actually coming in above its modest expectations — placing #4 for the weekend, which was led by Thor in its second frame. Priest was incredibly front loaded, plummeting 68.2% in its second weekend to $4,750,041 and 62.7% in its third to $1,772,996. Priest closed its US run with $29,136,626 which after theaters take their percentage of the ticket price would leave Sony with about $16 million, which would only cover a bit more than half of the P&A spend. Overseas Sony released the film to $49.1 million, with Russia pulling in $10.4 million as the strongest territory. A modest $13 million in US home video sales (not including the reseller’s cut and manufacturing costs) would pad the loss for Sony.